"Sunny Times Ahead" whilst we flood

Flooding Nov 2007

As the rain continued to fall yesterday leading to flooding in Gippsland and parts of Melbourne, I was reading my paper copy of Choice Magazine. "Sunny Times Ahead" detailed the findings by the Alternative Technology Association, ATA, on the payback periods for Solar Power ( PV) throughout Australia.

Whilst now is a good time to buy current solar technology, the fall in the Australian dollar will lead to an increase in the price of panels, in the short term at least. Long term, I would have thought the outlook is sunny with further reductions in costs and increases in efficiency as more research is done.
What concerned me is the question "Is bigger better?" on page 39 of the article.

In purely economic terms, the answer is no. The changes to Feed in Tariff's(FiT) have mean't that consumers are actively penalized from installing as much capacity as our roofs can stand. This means the Electricity companies are continuing to produce highly polluting, carbon rich electricity, particularly in Victoria with little thought of the environmental consequences. So if you considered only the environment, then big is certainly better!

If all the roofs in Melbourne, capable of producing solar power, were encouraged to produce and feed into the grid, then more CO2 free electricity is produced, less infrastructure in terms of new Coal Powered Generation is required. (Gas Powered generation will be required to load balance at the moment).

Research has shown that the current level of Solar Power, plus other renewable energy is reducing the cost of peak power. It is incredibly short-sighted to reduce this energy input and will make those who are poorer and don't own their own roofs more susceptible to "electricity supply gold plating". See the following article by the Age and checkout the Melbourne Energy Institute web site for more in-depth, knowledgeable articles.

That's why I have joined Solar Citizens, the ATA and the Australian Consumer Association. I want my voice to be heard, my roof to produce as much solar as it can (within my limited budget) and know that I am at least trying to reduce my environmental impact, before it all becomes irrelevant (EROEI stuff).